In a restaurant industry filled with burgers, pizza, chicken and traditional sandwich concepts, it takes something genuinely different to capture people’s attention. What’s The Dill® has done exactly that.
Built around an idea that is remarkably simple yet immediately memorable, drop the bread and pick up a pickle instead. What’s The Dill has transformed the traditional sandwich into an experience of its own. The Detroit-based concept specializes in stuffed pickle sandwiches, cucumber wraps and other creative bread alternatives designed to deliver big flavor in a fresh, distinctive format.
The result is a restaurant brand that combines a great product, an engaging personality and a concept that customers can understand almost instantly.
Behind the brand is founder Leona Gist-Milton, an entrepreneur whose journey demonstrates how a personal idea, culinary creativity and persistence can develop into a business with much larger potential.
From a Personal Idea to a Detroit Restaurant
Leona Milton’s interest in the restaurant industry goes back decades. According to the company, she had dreamed of opening her own restaurant since attending culinary school in 1997. Years later, that dream began taking shape through a concept inspired in part by her own dietary needs.
Milton has explained that she is allergic to wheat and doesn’t eat traditional bread or pasta. That led her to experiment with eating sandwiches differently. During the COVID-19 period, the idea evolved into a business opportunity, and Milton began testing What’s The Dill through pop-up events.
The response demonstrated that the idea could appeal to far more people than those simply avoiding bread.
After proving the concept through pop-ups, Leona and her husband, Kenny Milton, opened the What’s The Dill restaurant in Detroit in November 2022. The business has remained very much a family operation, with members of the Milton family participating in bringing the concept to customers.
The Miltons also received meaningful support along the way. CBS Detroit reported that the couple received a $25,000 Motor City Match grant to help expand the business. Earlier assistance included grants and entrepreneurial support through organizations working with Michigan food businesses.
What began as an entrepreneurial experiment had become a recognizable Detroit restaurant brand.
A Product That Immediately Gets People’s Attention
The centrepiece of What’s The Dill is exactly what the name suggests: pickles.
Instead of placing sandwich ingredients between two slices of bread, What’s The Dill serves meats, cheeses, vegetables and toppings inside a large dill pickle. It is an immediately recognizable product with an unexpected presentation, and that distinction is important.
In today’s restaurant market, food needs to do more than taste good. The most interesting concepts often have products customers want to photograph, share, discuss and introduce to friends.
A stuffed pickle sandwich naturally creates that reaction.
The concept is easy to explain:
It’s a sandwich, but the pickle replaces the bread.
That simplicity is one of the strongest elements of the What’s The Dill brand.
The restaurant’s menu extends beyond the signature stuffed pickle. What’s The Dill has offered cucumber sandwiches and wraps, tomato and bell pepper sandwich alternatives, soups and its creative “Smickles,” small slider-style sandwiches using pickle chips.
The brand has also experimented with products such as flavored dessert pickles and the “Chilly Dilly Dog,” demonstrating an ability to continue innovating around its core pickle identity.
The concept therefore isn’t simply about removing bread. It’s about creating a recognizable food category around fresh ingredients, bold flavors and a little bit of fun.
A Menu That Can Reach Different Types of Customers
Another attractive feature of What’s The Dill is the flexibility of the menu.
The company’s positioning emphasizes options for customers seeking gluten-free, keto, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian and Halal-friendly choices.
That flexibility gives the concept the ability to serve customers with very different preferences while maintaining a clear central identity.
- A traditional sandwich customer may simply want something different and flavorful.
- A keto customer may appreciate enjoying sandwich ingredients without conventional bread.
- A customer avoiding gluten may find the concept particularly appealing.
- A vegetarian or vegan customer can customize an option around vegetables and plant-based ingredients.
- Someone who simply loves pickles has an entire restaurant concept designed around one of their favorite foods.
Milton herself has emphasized this broad appeal, noting that the concept can accommodate different dietary preferences while also attracting customers who simply enjoy trying a novel approach to a meal.
That combination, unique enough to generate curiosity but familiar enough to understand, can be extremely valuable for an emerging restaurant brand.
The Brand Is as Important as the Pickle
What’s The Dill isn’t just a menu concept. It has personality.
Even the name invites interaction.
“What’s The Dill?”
It’s memorable, playful and naturally lends itself to marketing campaigns, merchandise, social media content and customer engagement.
The experience inside the restaurant reflects that same personality. Employees greet customers by calling out “What’s the Dill!” when they enter.
Great restaurant brands don’t simply sell food. They develop rituals, language and experiences customers remember.
What’s The Dill has the ingredients to build exactly that type of culture.
There are almost endless opportunities for pickle-themed product names, promotional campaigns, limited-time offerings, merchandise, catering programs, social media challenges and community events.
The food itself creates content. A large pickle sliced open and loaded with meats, cheeses and colorful vegetables is visually distinctive and highly shareable online.
Pickles Are Having a Cultural Moment
What’s The Dill also finds itself positioned within a much larger consumer fascination with pickles.
Pickle flavors have expanded far beyond the traditional jar in the refrigerator. Pickle-inspired snacks, beverages, restaurant dishes, festivals and novelty foods continue attracting consumer attention.
What’s The Dill takes that enthusiasm considerably further.
Rather than adding pickle flavor to an existing menu, the brand makes the pickle central to the restaurant experience.
A trend can help introduce consumers to a product, but a strong brand needs an identity capable of lasting beyond a trend. What’s The Dill has an opportunity to accomplish that by owning its niche through its menu, brand voice, customer experience and continued product innovation.
Why What’s The Dill Has an Interesting Franchise Story
From a franchise development perspective, some of the most compelling concepts are those that can answer the question, “What makes you different?” in one sentence.
What’s The Dill can.
The stuffed pickle sandwich provides the concept with a signature product around which an entire brand can be built.
That differentiation can be especially valuable when entering new franchise markets. A new franchise owner isn’t simply opening another deli or sandwich restaurant. The franchisee would be introducing consumers to a concept designed to generate curiosity.
“Have you tried the restaurant that uses a pickle instead of bread?”
That type of word-of-mouth proposition is difficult to manufacture. What’s The Dill has it built directly into the product.
The original corporate store in Detroit operates from a compact footprint while demonstrating strong efficiency and impressive revenue potential per square foot.
As the franchise system develops, establishing standardized operating procedures, supply chain specifications, food preparation systems, training, technology, marketing and unit economics will be essential. The underlying consumer proposition, however, is already clear.
Leona Milton: An Entrepreneurial Story Worth Sharing
Perhaps one of the strongest elements behind What’s The Dill is the story of its founder.
Leona Milton didn’t begin with a large restaurant group or a national chain behind her. She started with an idea, tested it through pop-up events, sought resources and funding, learned how to build the business and ultimately opened a successful physical restaurant.
Her story represents the kind of entrepreneurial journey that resonates naturally with prospective franchise owners.
In 2025, Milton also participated in OpenAI’s Small Business Jam in Detroit, where she worked on using AI to improve inventory management and demand forecasting for the restaurant and catering business.
That willingness to learn, adapt and improve is particularly relevant as a business transitions from a founder-led operation toward a scalable franchise organization.
More Than a Sandwich, What’s The Dill Is an Experience
At its core, the What’s The Dill opportunity starts with three powerful ingredients:
- A great product
- A great menu
- A fun, engaging brand
The product gets people’s attention.
The menu gives customers reasons to return.
The brand gives them something to remember.
What’s The Dill has taken one of America’s most recognizable foods and looked at it differently. Instead of treating the pickle as the side that comes with the sandwich, the brand has made the pickle the star of the show.
That simple reversal has created something distinctive.
From Leona Milton’s early pop-up events to the opening of the Detroit restaurant, What’s The Dill demonstrates what can happen when an entrepreneur combines personal experience, creativity and determination with a product customers haven’t seen everywhere else.
Now, as the concept moves into franchising, the opportunity is to take that originality and package it into a repeatable business system, giving entrepreneurs in new markets the opportunity to bring the What’s The Dill experience to their own communities.
Because in a restaurant industry where everyone is searching for the next memorable concept, What’s The Dill has something customers can sink their teeth into and a brand they’re unlikely to forget.
To learn more about this unique franchise opportunity, visit the What’s The Dill corporate website.
